The electronics industry continues to pursue integrated circuits with enhanced performance and increased density to meet consumer demand. Capacitors and inductors are key required devices for the fabrication of integrated circuits. Typically, an inductor includes a coil of conductive material, and a capacitor includes two electrodes separated by a dielectric material, e.g., a parallel plate capacitor.
As semiconductor device critical dimensions have been reduced in order to increase the density of integrated circuits, traditional capacitor and inductor designs have exhibited scaling problems. These scaling problems include, for example, increases in resistance and leakage currents, and reductions in capacitance and fabrication yield.
For instance, reducing the size of a capacitor may cause a reduction in the amount of conductive material used in the capacitor and associated contact structures, increasing the resistance of the capacitor. In addition, the reduction in size may lead to a reduction in the amount of dielectric material, reducing the capacitance of the capacitor.
Further, radio frequency applications typically require multiple oscillator circuits, which may be implemented using inductors and capacitors. Fabrication techniques that produce separate inductors and capacitors require increased wafer area on an integrated circuit or chip.